Picture This

For centuries, creating a two-dimensional representation of reality on a flat surface was almost exclusively the painter’s domain. But when a mysterious one-eyed, three-legged black box made its debut in the mid-1800s, everything changed.

By the time the American Civil War commenced, the canvas was no longer the only game in town. It was the camera that was turning a new eye on the world. For even with all of its chemicals and processes and light-sensitivity issues, the lens captured just about every aspect of the human experience more quickly and easily — and in some cases, more accurately — than any painter could hope to.

What did this new technology mean to the American painter of the 19th century? And what does it mean to art and the process of painting more than a century and a half later?

The Columbus Museum of Art examines these questions through April 24 in “Shared Intelligence: American Painting and the Photograph.” The exhibition, which comprises 75 paintings and photographs, explores the complex relationship between two mediums that observe and interpret the world in ways that are sometimes very similar, sometimes completely different, and yet somehow always reflective of each other. To read more, click here to subscribe. >>